Comer: DOGE Follows GAO in ‘Identifying Trillions of Dollars Lost’

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—As the Trump administration is homing in on how trillions of tax dollars are being misspent, the Government Accountability Office is set to report to Congress about wasteful spending in Medicaid, improper payments to federal program beneficiaries, and outdated information technology systems. 

The House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee is holding a hearing on the GAO’s 2025 High-Risk List. The list and the hearing take on heightened significance as President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative ferrets out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies.

“DOGE has taken note of GAO’s critical work in identifying trillions of dollars lost to improper payments made by programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance,” House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is set to say in his opening remarks at the upcoming hearing on Tuesday, according to excerpts obtained by The Daily Signal. “And now, DOGE is taking action to address the root causes of improper payments. DOGE has also recognized GAO’s reports on the need to modernize IT for a more efficient and effective federal government.”

Comer has said the Republican majority on the committee is excited to work with the Trump administration’s DOGE initiative—led by SpaceX, Tesla, and X owner Elon Musk—to cut improper payments and other waste. 

“Americans want more than another report telling them about all the problems in Washington,” Comer said. “They want action to right the ship. And that is just what President Trump, DOGE, and Republicans in Congress are doing for the American people.”

Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the GAO, will testify about the report’s findings to the House panel. The GAO is a nonpartisan watchdog agency in the legislative branch. The hearing is set to begin at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. 

The GAO publishes a High-Risk List at the start of each new Congress to update lawmakers on the 38 areas that present a financial risk of loss of at least $1 billion to taxpayers.

“Despite the excellent reports by GAO each year, there continues to be rampant waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government,” Comer said in the comments. 

“Now, more than ever, GAO’s work tells us that we need more data, more tracking of funds, more oversight, and yes, more efficiency to know exactly where taxpayer money is going,” his opening remarks say. 

However, DOGE critics have argued that lawmakers interested in cutting wasteful spending should rely on the existing GAO and inspectors general, rather than an entirely new entity working in the White House. 

“If President Trump was serious about promoting government efficiency, he would have prioritized strengthening these already existing independent government watchdogs that reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the government—including improper payments,” Donald Sherman, executive director of the liberal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the Oversight’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. 

“He could have issued an executive order directing his Cabinet and federal agencies to expeditiously implement the thousands of open GAO and inspector general recommendations outstanding in the executive branch,” Sherman said.

In a Feb. 12 press release, the White House called out The New York Times for claiming there is no proof for “sweeping claims” of fraud in federal government spending by pointing to a GAO report released last April that found, “No area of the federal government is immune to fraud. We estimated that the federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.”

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